15 Comments

Well Matt, us old dudes need to stick together. We got your back...

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Instead of a 5 timer's gold jacket, does Dreyfuss get some Kmele-inspired Yeezy black jacket?

If Nick makes it to five times on the podcast, does TFC get to keep his black jacket?

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“Sorry, pal—job requires two working eyeballs.” 🌶🌶🌶🫑 / 🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶

Here’s to the next Ben affair 🥃

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I would think that two working eardrums would be the more pertinent qualification. Besides, I feel like Matt is subtly coming for Salman Rushdie.

Here's my vote for having Rushdie and Dreyfus replace Matt. There you have it.. two working eyeballs.

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If a job in audio content creation can be done without two working ears, albeit temporarily, I failed to see why two working eyeballs might be needed.

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Aug 21, 2022·edited Aug 21, 2022

Anyone following this American Historical Association drama? I haven’t dug too deep or found an explainer but looks like a fantastic mess

https://twitter.com/conor64/status/1560984521717194754

https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1561298507205644290

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If TFC doesn't take this up, this seems up BARpod's alley. I can't be fussed to delve into this either, but it looks pretty dystopia. From what I've gathered, a historian publishes an article to the effect of "guys, if you're judging the past through the lens of the present, you're doing history wrong", which until like 3 years ago, was, so far as I'm aware, an entirely uncontroversial viewpoint. Then the AHA forced him to apologize because this is the wrong history now?

Matt Yglesias in with the correct take:

"This whole line of thought that you shouldn't say things that you think are true because those things may be "weaponized" by others strikes me as fairly corrosive to intellectual life."

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"Also: Reports of MY replacement have been greatly exaggerated...."

Is the select letter capitalization your way of quelling rumors that you'll be replaced by Matt Yglesias?

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So is Moynihan the Kmele of podcasts? He seems to appear on one as frequently as Kmele is at conferences

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founding

I re-listened to #127 and had to laugh at how Stelter and Michael were both fervently hoping that the routine questioning of anything Trump said would be a new standard for administrations to come.

I wonder if Stelter kept that up for Biden.

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Can TFC talk about whatever the hell this thing with FN Meka is? An AI rapper (who’s visualized as... maybe black, whatever than means) gets cancelled for producing(?) music that includes the n-word and materialistic lyrics.

I barely know how to wrap my head around any of this, but it’s absurd, and weird, and stupid, and I want to hear what Kmele thinks about racializing a computer program. Can an AI ever use the forbidden word?

Is the reason why the AI can't use the forbidden word because it's not a person that has had the "Black Experience"? And if so, doesn't that open up a lot of questions about people with certain phenotypical characteristics who may not have had whatever the "Black Experience" is? Can an AI have an identity? If it can't have a "Black Experience" can it have any other kind of experience? Should all art be the sole domain of people who have human experiences, thereby precluding AIs?

Is it just freaking weird that we have computer programs producing "art" now? Is it "art"? Should we be happy that whatever this is is being cancelled because it at least helps to keep art a "human" endeavor?

What does it even mean to sign an AI character?

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Hey, kind of a random question here - does anybody know if Elizabeth Nolan Brown has a newsletter or Substack? I'm off Twitter - lost my account over some drama, and dislike Twitter culture enough not to want to return - and ENB is one of the accounts there that I miss the most. I suppose I could just keep checking Reason regularly, but there's actually on a few writers there that I follow.

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Every time I am presented with an image of the bloated blob (Stelter) i have to remind myself the self-aggrandizing douchebag is only 36. Seriously, he looks like he could be Matt Welch's father (with type 2 diabetes).

Good riddance. Here is hoping he is the first of many people, who land on a "retirement island" for media personalities who impersonate journalist's.

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Great to see Moynihan reference Kenan Malik in his FIRE discussion. I was lucky enough to have a guest lecture from Malik when I was at University, and it was one of the best lectures I've ever attended. From Fatwa to Jihad is a great book, too.

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